CRAVER Architects

Happy Holidays!

Many thanks to our excellent team of consultants, the talented contractors that we work with and most of all to our wonderful clients who entrust us with their hopes and dreams. We look forward to working with all of you in the new year!

 

Our office will be closed for the Holidays and our annual housekeeping

from December 23rd- January 12th.

10 Tips for Selecting Your Contractor

Finding a good contractor to handle your home renovation or remodeling project can be an overwhelming task and while the following list can’t guarantee that the builder you choose will be problem free, it is a great way to find our more about them and gage whether or not they are a good fit for your needs.

1. How long have they been in business and doing similar types of project?
2. Are they licensed and insured?
3. How many projects have you completed in the last five years that are similar in size and cost?
4. Who are their references?
5. How many workers will typically be on the job site every day and who will be the contact person/job foreman?
6. Who will they use as subcontractors on the project and how long/often have they worked with them?
7. Are these subcontractors licensed?
8. What contract forms and payment schedule do they use?
9. How many crews do they have and how many projects will they be working on at the same time?
10. What type of warranty do they provide and what does that cover?

Once you have this information it is important to follow up on it. Conversations with past clients are often the most revealing and informative about the person and company you are considering inviting into your home and your daily life. Taking the time upfront to get to know them, the quality of their work and the way they handle the construction process (through good times and bad) is well worth your investment.

 

You can download the PDF at the right as a tool to get you started on your way!

 

Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved

Green Choices, Part II

As things wrap up on my own house and we begin to enjoy the new spaces, I want to continue an earlier conversation about what we did here to be as green as we could be. The first part of this article discussed the main building components and systems. Continuing inside, let’s pick up where we left off and take a look at some of the more detailed parts of the renovation.

1. Floor: Where possible, we kept the existing floors and refinished them but in the upstairs our new choice for flooring was bamboo. As a sustainable material bamboo was an easy solution with benefits. In researching bamboo we learned a lot about the material and the process that made the decision an easy one. Most important on the list was its favorable hardness compared to oak (1900 bamboo vs. 1290 for oak on the Janka scale). Stranded bamboo is even harder (in the 2800 range) but we felt unnecessary for the bedroom floors which are relatively low traffic. Looks were important too and the caramelized, vertical bamboo won out as a very close match to the existing floor where they meet at the stair. The best part was cost: this green choice was $3.08/sf for the prefinished materials compared to $4.20 we were quoted for oak installed and finished on site.
2. Walls: Low VOC paint added about $700. to the total cost of paint and is one of the easiest green things to do.
3. Lighting and Fans: New fixtures that take compact fluorescent bulbs were our choice. Be careful to select the bulbs intended for use with dimmers as there is a difference. In preparation for when the cooling season hits we have on hand a ceiling fan waiting for installation in the Master Bedroom. Each sleeping room will eventually have one as a way to reduce our energy use even more.
4. Furnishings: Most of our furniture that we stored during construction went right back into the house but we did need to purchase some additional pieces and we made those choices as green as we could. The new bed frame in one room is made from sustainable woods; a new chair is padded with a soy material and upholstered in organic cotton. As we take our time to fill out the blank spots in the house, antiques, the ultimate in reused furniture will be our first choice.
5. Garden: New planting areas have a selection of species that are drought tolerant. For times when Mother Nature needs supplementing, by spring we will have installed a rain barrel for harvesting and holding rainwater for garden use rather than using the potable water from the tap.

Could we have been greener? Absolutely yes but I believe the first steps towards sustainable, green living is in making the small choices that can be accomplished rather easily every day. We made our choices based on what we could afford and what made sense for our family. We look forward to a future where we hope to be able to do more.

 

Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved